The Arizona Cardinals are currently going through somewhat of a nightmare situation with rookie running back Jeremiyah Love. During his first NFL action, in the team’s preseason game on Saturday, Love suffered a high-ankle sprain. You never want to see a player get hurt, let alone a high draft pick in their very first game.
The good news is that the injury isn’t severe, and the hope is that Love will be ready to go by Week 1 of the regular season. The bad news is that the running back’s injury has opened up some ridiculous discourse. With Love now sidelined, conversations about how Arizona needs to manage his usage have already started.
Cardinals reporter Josh Weinfuss recently detailed these conversations in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. When asked by McAfee if Love is going to survive the way he plays, Weinfuss explained that Arizona has spent training camp using Love like a feature back instead of an every-down back.
According to Weinfuss, that looks like Love getting most of the main carries, but veteran Tyler Allgeier getting reps as well, mainly as a short-yard bruiser. The reporter went on to say that he doesn’t think the Cardinals will “let [Love] be that running back that goes too much, because they have such a deep room.”
While there’s no denying the depth in Arizona’s running back room, it would be a bad look if the Cardinals drafted Love with the third-overall pick just to limit his usage.
Cardinals shouldn’t let Jeremiyah Love’s injury affect his usage
Love has quickly found himself at the center of a conversation that surrounds a lot of good running backs. The football world is infatuated with talking about the shelf life of running backs and how teams must be intentional about using rushers to avoid running them into the ground.
Anytime that conversation is had, it doesn’t really land, because it would look silly for a team to not utilize one of their most talented players. Obviously, it’d be great if everyone could stay healthy, but the brutal reality of football is that injuries are going to happen. Of course, there are things players can do to try to avoid injuries, and teams can be smart in the sense of not pushing players who are already dealing with injuries, but there’s no guarantee that limited reps will prevent injury.
The only thing that’s for sure being prevented by limited touches is the amount of game-changing opportunities a team’s top player is seeing. The Cardinals used the third pick of the 2026 Draft on Jeremiyah Love because every one of his touches has home-run potential. When you have a player like that, you get them the ball as much as possible. Hopefully the Cardinals understand that and won’t go trying to chase some idea of health that doesn’t exist in football.
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